Honda Motor is reviving the name of its first hybrid – the two-seat, three-door Insight coupe – for a five-door dedicated hybrid hatchback with which to attack Toyota’s forthcoming redesigned Prius which will have a plug-in option.
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As just-auto reported earlier this week, the car, built on a new platform and styled along the lines of the Clarity fuel cell model, will be shown as a ‘concept’ at the Paris motor show next month.
“Honda is introducing the advanced Insight to meet the needs of customers in a new era of widespread demand for hybrid vehicles,” it said in Japan on Thursday.
“The name Insight was chosen to denote Honda’s ‘insight’ into a new era in which hybrid vehicles come within reach of most car buyers.”
Speaking in Frankfurt a few days ago, Honda UK environmental manager John Kingston said the new model was key to Honda’s future.
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By GlobalData“It is a very important car for Honda and our future direction,” he said, adding: “This is a car that will change customer perception of hybrids.”
Kingston said that Honda’s aim was to widen the customer base for hybrids, to allow customers to choose such cars for their economy benefits. While he wouldn’t be more specific on how much more affordable the new car would be, he said that the aim was to have no price premium over traditional cars from rival manufacturers.
“This is key for us and to achieve this hybrids have to be made more affordable – the key barrier to hybrid sales is price and we want to break that barrier,” he added.
Honda said its new five-door, five-passenger compact hatchback Insight would feature an innovative new platform in which the battery and control unit are located beneath the cargo space “for exceptional utility and a light, pleasing driving feel”.
It has an updated version of the automaker’s well established hybrid IMA (integrated motor assist) powerplant, in which a petrol engine serves as the main power source and an electric motor/starter assists when extra power is needed, such as during passing or start-off and acceleration.
This is different from Toyota’s more complex Prius which can run solely on its electric motor.
Honda said the new Insight has a new support function that helps drivers make the most of its exceptional fuel economy to achieve more efficient, environmentally responsible driving.
“Thanks to reductions in the weight and size of the Insight’s key components, Honda has also achieved significant cost reductions,” it said.
Honda plans to introduce the production cars in Japan, Europe and North America in spring 2009 and projects annual global sales of 200,000 units.
Honda’s US unit said the new hybrid would “come to market at a price significantly below hybrids available today.”
“From this unique position in the marketplace, the Insight will advance the affordability and accessibility of hybrid technology to a new generation of buyers.
“This new Insight will break new ground as an affordable hybrid within the reach of customers who want great fuel economy and great value.”
Along with the Civic Hybrid, the new vehicle will be produced at an expanded hybrid vehicle production line at the Suzuka factory in Japan.
Honda US expects to sell about 100,000 of the Insights built each year.
It said the automaker’s global sales of hybrids should increase to approximately 500,000 units a year, or more than 10% of its total worldwide annual sales.
The original Insight was introduced in December 1999 as America’s first petrol-electric hybrid car. (The original Prius sedan arrived in Japan in ’97 but was not exported to the US until 2000.)
The Insight was the first vehicle to break the 70mpg fuel economy barrier in the US and was designed to demonstrate the ultimate potential for fuel economy in a two-seater subcompact.
